Pressured Lecturers, Cheating Students

A report conducted by Britain’s Office of the Independent Adjudicator received worldwide attention after a student was found using invisible ink, detectable only under UV light, to cheat during exams.

The law student was found with 24 pages of hidden notes inside the prescribed materials that were allowed in the examination room.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) could not confirm whether similar incidents had taken place in New Zealand, but urged those with concerns about cheating and assessments at tertiary institutions “to come forward so that we can investigate.”

22 complaints of academic misconduct were made to New Zealand government agencies in April 2017, following the Tertiary Education Union State of the Sector report’s release in March.

The report revealed that completion rate requirements set by the Tertiary Education Commission put pressure on staff to award a higher percentage of passing grades.

NZQA said it had received nine complaints in the same period. One of the complaints had been referred to Universities New Zealand.

231 instances of academic misconduct were recorded at VUW from 2013–2015.

In trimester one of 2014, VUW recorded 34 breaches of exam rules, 21 of which were incidents in which students’ phones rang during the exam.

Only three students were found to have brought notes into their exam; two had done so inadvertently, and the other received a zero grade for that course.

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